If you love and really wish to bring happiness to yourself and others and
want to enjoy life and all success as well, it is very important for you to
open your heart and mind.

Study and analyze philosophies and religions with which you may not be
fimiliar, such as those from the East - especially those that teach about
the mind. In Buddhism, for example, you will find incredibly clear and
complete explanation of both how the mind causes suffering and how it can be
trained to eradicate both suffering and its cause. These teachings give you
the chance to be completely free from death, rebirth and all other problems
forever.

It is very educational to observe just how many people spend their time
compiling statistic on things such as the incidence of goiter in a
particular country. If there is value in this kind of study, how much
greater must be the value of studying philosophies and meditation techniques
that contain complete and unmistaken descriptions of the nature of the mind,
the cause and cure of illness, and how to escape from suffering forever.

In the West, the mind is still being studied and its parameters defined, and
the definitions in vogue today will change with further study. However,
since the definitions of the mind given by the Fully Enlightened One
Encompass every aspect of its existence, there is no need to review and
update them. The Buddha's teachings on the mind explain the basis, the path,
and the result of everlasting happiness, and by studying these teachings you
can bring great happiness to yourself and others. An ever-growing number of
open-minded, well-educated people from both East and West is finding such
study extremely beneficial, and I encourage all the pursue this line of
inquiry.

The practice contained in this booklet is that of the Healing (or Medicine)
Buddha, a fully enlightened being, and the reason for undertaking it is
clear and simple. When you are sick, it doesn't matter what your doctor
calls the disease - as far as your happiness is concerned, the most
important thing to do is to find a cure, especially one that has no side
effects. Instead of getting caught up in complicated labels and theories,
simply visualize the Healing Buddha and practice this meditation, whose
purpose is to cure the illnesses that you might be currently experiencing,
while preventing the onset of any other. It is best done at dawn, but you
can also do it whenever else you like.

No matter what you do, it is essential to generate a positive motivation.
Therefore, think as follows:

"The purpose of my life is to free all living
beings from all their problems and the causes of these problems, which are
in their minds, and to bring all beings peace and happiness, especially the
peerless happiness of full enlightenment, which they desperately need. For
me to be able to do this, my mind and body must be perfect, pure and
healthy. Therefore, to benefit living beings equal to extent of space, I am
going to practice this healing meditation."

Visualize yourself in your ordinary body, with your heart at the center of
your chest, inverted, pointing upwards. Inside your heart is a white, eight-petalled
lotus. At its center is a moon disc, upon which is seated the Healing Buddha
in the aspect of the supreme transformation. His holy body is clear and in
the nature of dark blue light, and he holds an arura plant in his right hand
and a begging bowl in his left.

In front of the Healing Buddha is the white medicinal goddess, Actualized
Wisdom; to his right is the yellow medicinal goddess, Simultaneous Wealth;
behind him is the red forest goddess, Peacock's Throat; to his left is the
green tree goddess, Radiant One. Each goddess is in the nature of blissful
radiant light and has one face and two arms. An arura plant is in each
goddess's right hand, with a vase adorned with various ornaments in the
left. The four goddesses sit cross-legged, not in the full vajra position
but in the aspect of offering respect to the Healing Buddha.

Then make this request:

O Destroyer, Complete in All Qualities and
Gone Beyond and you four medicinal goddesses,
please pacify immediately the illnesses that
afflict me now and help me avoid all future
sickness.

Light rays of the appropriate colour emanate from each of the five deities at
your heart. Your heart and body are full of blissful light, which completely
purifies all disease, spirit harms, and negative actions and their imprints.
Beams of five-coloured light radiate from all the pores of your body, while
nectar flows down from the Healing Buddha's begging bowl and the vases held
by the four goddesses, completely filling your heart and body. Generate the
strong recognition that you have vanquished all disease forever and will
never be sick again.

While concentrating single-pointedly on this visualization, recite the short
or long Healing Buddha mantra seven, twenty one, one hundred and eight, or
more times.

If you are sick, after you have finished reciting the mantra, put some
saliva on your left palm, rub it with the tip of your right ring finger,
place the tip on this finger at the entrance of your right and left
nostrils, where the so-called All-Doing King Nerve can be found, and apply
the saliva to the afflicted parts of your body. Then recite as many mantras
of the Sanskrit vowels and consonants as possible, along with the mantra of
the Heart of Dependent Arising.

Because of all my positive actions of the past, present, and future, which
bring happiness, may the ultimate good heart - which cherishes all living
beings and is the source of the three-time happiness of myself and others -
arise in those minds where it has not yet arisen, and increase in those
minds where it already has sprung.

Because of my three-time positive actions and those of all holy beings,
whose attitude is the purest, may all the kind father and mother sentient
beings have happiness. May I alone be the cause of this, and may the three
lower realms be empty forever.

May the prayers of all holy beings - those who dedicate their lives to the
happiness of others - succeed immediately, and may I alone be the cause of
this.

Because of my three-time positive actions and those of all holy beings, may
I achieve the peerless happiness of full enlightenment - the state of mind
that is free of all error and complete in all positive qualities - and lead
all others to that state.

ColophonThis healing practice was translated by Lama Zopa Rinpoche at Tara
Institute, Melbourne, Australia, on September 1, 1991. The Motivational and
Dedication have been added to the original text.

There is another way to
protect yourself from disease. Experience has shown that diseases such as
cancer and AIDS occur when your mind is obsessed with sexual desire and so
forth. Because of this attachment to worldly pleasure, you create mistaken actions, which harm yourself and others and cause guilt,
and as a result, cancer, arthritis, and so forth manifest. All this comes
from your own mind's incorrect attitude.

Since all such problems are caused by an undisciplined mind and the
actions it creates, one of the most important things you can do is to live a
moral discipline. Do not deceive yourself by thinking that this is only a
religious viewpoint - it is real protection.

For example, if you let your mind go crazy, your life is unprotected.
Preventing your mind from going crazy is the way to protect your life. Just
see how many problems plague a country where moral discipline is in short
supply. The way to protect, or heal, your mind and body is to purify the
causes of problems that you have already created, which lie in your mind. To
do this, you need to practice one or more of the powerful purifying
techniques found in Tibetan Buddhism.

There are other powerful healing buddhas such as Vajrapani and Logyunma, a
female healing buddha in leaf-wearing aspect, who is well-known as an
opponent of epidemic disease. I myself have seen ill people recover
completely through these two practices.

Another way to bring purity into your life is to make a commitment in front
of a holy being such as the Healing Buddha, or any other spiritually
advanced being you choose. If you are not interested in making a commitment
to enlightened beings and saints, make a commitment to all living beings.
The commitment you should make is to not harm others - harming others only
harms yourself as well. Commit yourself to avoid all ten non-virtuous
actions, or as may of the as you can.

These Dharma methods are the only true solution. Unless you transform your
mind into a positive state through either the external medicine of actions
or the internal medicine of meditation, you will be constantly taking
medicine and poisons at the same time.

I have added this advice because many people, especially in the West, lead
such incredibly miserable lives because their minds swings repeatedly from
one extreme to the other.

All sentient beings, equal to space, go for refuge to the precious guru-buddha.
We go for refuge to the Buddha, the Dharma, and the Sangha.

We go for refuge to the assembly of gurus, meditational deities, and dakinis.
We go for refuge to the empty clarity of our minds, the dharmakaya.Recite these verses as many
times as you are able.

OM MANI PADME HUMRecite this mantra hundreds of times, as many as you are able.

Then:

May all the diseases that sadden the minds of sentient beings that result
from karma and temporary conditions, such as the harms of spirits,
illnesses, and the elements, not occur in the realms of the world.

May whatever sufferings there are from life-threatening diseases that, like
a butcher leading a being to be slaughtered, separate the body from the mind
in a mere instant, not occur in the realms of the world.

May all embodied beings be unharmed by acute, chronic, and other infectious
diseases, the mere sound of whose names terrifies beings, as though they had
been place inside the mouth of Yama, the Lord of Death.

May all embodied beings be unharmed by the 80,000 classes of harmful
interferers, and 360 evil spirits that harm suddenly, the 424 diseases, and
so forth.

May whatever sufferings there are due to disturbances of the four elements,
depriving the body and mind of every pleasure, be totally pacified, and may
the body and mind have radiance and power and be endowed with long life,
good health, and well-being.

By the compassion of the gurus and the Triple Gem, the power of the dakinis,
Dharma protectors, and guardians, and by the strength of the infallibility
of karma and its results, may these many dedications
and prayers be fulfilled as soon as they are made.

ColophonOnce an epidemic was spreading from one person to another at the great
monastery of the Glorious Sakya (tradition). Whatever the mantric masters
tried - effigies, tormas, medicines, mantras, protextion-amulets, and so
forth had no effect, and the monastery was in danger of annihilation. At
that time, the master Mahasiddha (T'ang Tong Gyalpo) performed the 'Space'
refuge, recite a number of Manis, and proclaimed this prayer called "Attainment',
during which the entire epidemic immediately ceased in dependence upon its
performance. Thereby, it became renowned as the vajra speech radiating
masses of clouds of blessing entitled 'The Prayer Liberating Sakya from
Disease'.